Tim Kinsella has left Make Believe according to JoanFrc.com. He will continue to work on Joan of Arc and other musical endeavors, but still will allow time to spend in the Chicago and especially with his wife. While this news is about a week old I have not found anything "official" from the rest of the band on how/if they plan to continue. Tim's statement seems to indicate the possibility of a new singer and continuation of the band. The official statement following the jump.

06/28/2007

///Despite rumors that Weezer is winding down the band has announced plans to record a follow-up to 2005's Make Believe sometime early next month. [Thanks, Aversion]

///After completing their one-EP-a-month gig in 2006 Bishop Allen (pictured) has wasted very little time putting out their second full length entitled The Broken String. The album will be available on July 24th through the Dead Oceans label. The band played Chicago on Wednesday night, but since you missed that they will be back on August 9th at SubTs with Page France. Check out the track listing after the jump.[Thanks, PFork]

///NPR examines Miles Davis, his musical life, and the history of his style. You can download the entire 54 minute program to listen to on that long train ride to work.

This past week, I've been highly amused by the quirky electronica charm of Bjørn Torske via his latest release, Feil Knapp. As the press release accolades say below, Torske certainly does have a unique "signature sound" and I've been especially intrigued by his occasional blending of 8-bit video game sounds classic dub. To hear a sample this for yourself, check out the MP3 below, to hear Feil Knapp in its full glory take a trip to your favorite record store on July 10.

This is his first album since Trøbbel in 2001 (on Tellé Records). In many ways Feil Knapp (Norwegian for “wrong button”) represents a sound that sits somewhere in between Trøbbel, 1999`s seminal Nedi Myra on Ferox and his underground cult hit Søppelmann on SVEK. With influences ranging from Count Ossie and The Residents via 22 Skidoo to Idut Boys, Torske has created his very own and characteristic signature sound, a unique blend of warm and melancholic house, quirky avant-disco, leftfield electronica and dark, heavy psychedelic dub. In other words; this album has everything that we have learnt to love Bjørn for -- weirdly melodic and wonderfully groovy.

06/27/2007

I usually take solace in
the anonymity of a crowd. I feel as though I can gawk at my leisure
and be rest assured that no one in the band will notice me out of all
of the other people around. This was not possible at this performance and there are more
than a few photos of different members of the band looking directly at
me befuddled mid-song...probably trying to process why I, one of only 2
people in the audience, was taking so many photos.

In somewhat related news, I went over to Virgin Megastore on Saturday to check out how the clearance sale is going and while CDs were only down to 35% off (i.e. still not cheaper than Best Buy), they were clearing out a lot of the vinyl at 50%. Things were already looking pretty picked over, but there were some surprising gems still buried in the stacks. I ended up walking away with a beautiful 180gm gatefold copy of the Good, The Bad and The Queen record for only 15 bucks! If you're looking for vinyl bargains, I'd recommend getting over there ASAP, but if you're looking to pick up some cheap CDs you definitely should wait at least another week or so. According to the clerk that checked me out, store officially closes on July 14.

06/22/2007

Tonight Nate Euhus, better known as DJ LA*Jesus, is throwing his second annual birthday bash fundraiser at Darkroom. In addition to Jesus' hot skillz on the decks, the party will also feature the electro-pop sounds of Walter Meego, hip-hop emcee Lipschitz and DJ Bald Eagle of Life During Wartime fame. Proceeds from the night will benefit the great local charity, Rock For Kids.

And as if raising money for a good cause and hanging out with Jesus on a Friday night wasn't enough incentive, check out all of the sweet swag giveaways up for grabs:

So, in honor of this fine occasion, RFC has compiled a hot Friday 8-track set of all-Jesus tunes (much to our surprise, there are actually a helluva lot of good secular songs about Jesus...who knew??). Download all the sweet divine tracks after jump or simply hit play on the embeded player below.

06/21/2007

I love the fact that Chicago's music scene is so big that sometimes you end up finding out about local artists from out of town entities. There were a couple like that at SXSW this year...I'd be flipping through the artist list and would stop when I saw a 'Chicago' listed as the hometown, only to be completely oblivious to the band's name or origins. I just had another one of these random non-local discoveries of a local artist just the other day when I got this press release from a New York promo company:

Chicago DJ/producer/multi-instrumentalist Copperpot, aka Daniel Kupyers, is notorious for his stage fright. His condition spawned the name of his newest album WYLA?, an acronym for What're You Looking At? (EV Productions.) WYLA? is Copperpot's second full-length, and the follow up to 2005's Chapter 7. The stage shy artist called upon hip hop peers and legends such as KRS-One, Prince Po and Braintax, to help construct WYLA? and extended unlikely invitations to prog post-rockers like Dan Bitney and Jeff Parker of Tortoise and Matthew Lux of Isotope 217 to help him overcome his fear of being the sole man in the spotlight on the upcoming album.

06/20/2007

You know you've arrived when you've snagged Jarvis to curate a feature on your website...

Jarvis Cocker launches a whole new features segment on seminal indie music culture website Daytrotter. Inspired by Jarv's podcasts over the course of last year, this new segment, called Bookery, invites your favorite musicians to read a chapter from their favorite book, or a short story perhaps, and this is then made available for everyone's listening pleasure. Jarv contributes one of his favorite short stories, an Icelandic folk tale called "Bukolla and the Boy."

Here is your chance to design the next tour t-shirt for the Kings of Leon, and win some cool prizes at the same time. Kings of Leon, Barking Irons t-shirts, and Epiphone, are giving you a chance to design a t-shirt that will be sold on the next tour. All you have to do is submit your design through the Contest Page on the Kings of Leon Official Web Site and the band will pick the winner. Enter as many times as you wish, but only one winner will be chosen. The Grand Prize winner will receive an Epiphone Guitar singed by the group, plus a bonus prize-pack consisting of various Kings of Leon merchandise and apparel incorporating the winning design. Rawk!